Half-Blood High

XIII

Annabeth

"Good morning Miss Chase." Principal Brunner was sitting in the doorway in his wheelchair. He smiled warmly when I answered: "Good morning sir, how are you?"

"I am well, thank you. Enjoy your day!"

As I walked away I heard him say the same thing to the next student.

I headed for my locker, wanting to put away some of my binders, when I ran into Luke.

"Hey Annabeth. Are you doing anything after school? I was wondering if you wanted to hang out later."

I almost answered yes, then I remembered. Percy.

"Sorry but Percy and I are going to work on our science project after school. How about tomorrow?"

He shook his head. "Can't. They're posting fencing tryout results today, and the first practice is tomorrow. Sorry."

I sighed. No hanging out today or tomorrow. Oh well.

"It's fine." The bell rang. "Shoot, I gotta go. See you later, I guess." I ducked around him and headed for first period.

I felt bad about it. I mean, Luke is practically my best friend. We've hung out since we started school together. It hurts that I can't hang out with him, but I promised Percy we could work on the project together. The trials of high school.

I grabbed a binder from my locker and headed for English class. It was the least exciting of all my classes, but the work was easy enough. Conjugating verbs wasn't as hard as it sounded.

I hummed as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. It was a habit I had when I was idle. I picked it up from my dad. When ever he was focused on a project like model building or cooking, he would hum. He couldn't carry a tune to save his life, he would explain, but could hum with the best of them. I just liked doing it to pass the time.

I was nearly to the classroom when I ran into someone. Literally.

"Ow. Okay, that hurt." I muttered as I picked myself up. Whoever had hit me hadn't been paying attention to where they were walking. I turned to figure out who it was, and probably glare at them for making me late, when he spoke.

"Hi Annabeth."

Percy.

His sea-green eyes flashed apologetics as he bent down to hand me my binder. I had dropped it when he knocked me over.

"Sorry about that. Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah I'm fine. Are you okay though?"

He started to nod, then hesitated and quickly shook his head. "Yes and no. It's kind of complicated."

I raised an eyebrow. "Percy, are you okay or not? Do you need to see the nurse?"

He sighed. Glanced around before leaning closer.

"Can you keep a secret?"

Now both my eyebrows were raised. "Uh... sure? I guess so. Why?"

"I found something really weird. It's kind of hard to explain, but I can show it to you."

"What are you talking about?"

"The basement." He whispered urgently. "There's something wired in the basement."

I frowned. This was getting weird. "Percy what? What do you mean there's something weird in the basement? Did you murder someone or something?"

He quickly shook his head. "No, but, just come see for yourself. I can't explain it here."